Post navigation

About Exposing the Big Game

SF Chronicle

SCOTT SMITH, ASSOCIATED PRESS

December 7, 2016

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — The California gray wolves will keep their endangered species protections even once the rebounding animal hits a population of at least 50, state wildlife officials said Wednesday.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife published its plan for managing wolves late Tuesday, setting its policy for the species that is making a comeback to the state after it was killed off in the 1920s.

“Wolves returning to the state was inevitable,” said Charlton Bonham, director of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife in a statement. “It’s an exciting ecological story, and this plan represents the path forward to manage wolves.”

The plan marks a shift in course, dropping language from an earlier draft that directed officials to remove wolves from the list of animals protected once they reached the critical mass.

Wolves in California were hunted to extinction nearly a century ago, but a lone wolf called OR-7 crossed the northern border from Oregon in 2011. OR-7 and his mate have had a litter for each of the last three years, and cameras caught another family pack in Northern California, but it hasn’t been spotted in several months, wildlife advocates say. Officials say it’s hard to say how many wolves roam the state today, but their numbers remain small.

In response, state officials in 2014 granted the wolf protections under the state’s endangered species act, despite opposition from hunting and livestock groups who fear the predator will kill deer and valuable cattle. Under California’s protections, gray wolves can’t be killed or hunted.

U.S. law also protects wolves in most of the nation, except for Idaho, Montana and parts of Washington, Oregon and Utah, but there is a pending proposal to strip federal protections from most of the Lower 48 states, including California.

Kirk Wilbur of the California Cattlemen’s Association said ranchers in California are prohibited from taking meaningful steps against the predator that kills their livestock. They can’t throw a rock in their general direction — let alone shoot one that’s killing cattle, he said.

“The options are very limited to the way a rancher can protect his livestock,” Wilbur said. “That can be absolutely devastating for a rancher who is a small business owner.”

Wolf advocates, however, praise the plan. Amaroq Weiss of the Center for Biological Diversity said wolves are in the early stage of making a historic comeback, and it’s too soon to consider stripping away protections.

“It’s one of those conservation moments you don’t know if you’re going to get in your lifetime,” she said. “We’re getting it in California, and it’s really exciting.”

(Fossil fuel carbon emissions are about 100 times that of volcanoes during any given year. And so much heat trapping carbon dumped into the atmosphere is forcing the world’s climate to rapidly change. Image source: The Union of Concerned Scientists.)

ISIOLO, KENYA — Anna Phiri was 15 when her mother, a park ranger in Zambia, was murdered by poachers.

On Sept. 2, 2010, Esnart Paundi was standing guard with a colleague over two men they had caught with illegal bushmeat. What happened next is uncertain, but Ms. Phiri has heard that a third poacher, unknown to her mother, was hiding in the bush. He jumped out and slashed her colleague’s head with a machete.

Ms. Paundi, who was unarmed, ran. But the poachers gave chase, and when they caught her, they killed her.

Ms. Paundi, 38, was the breadwinner for her five siblings, and she left behind five children, now orphans. Though she died serving her country and protecting its wildlife, she had no life insurance, and officials offered no assistance to her family. “They didn’t even say anything to us,” Ms. Phiri said.

The world depends on individuals like Ms. Paundi to protect increasingly imperiled wildlife. But many rangers do not receive the support they need. A recent World Wildlife Fund study of 570 rangers in 12 African countries found that 59 percent did not have basic supplies like boots, tents and GPS devices, and that 42 percent had not received adequate training.

Despite the critical role rangers play in the poaching crisis, conservation organizations tend to overlook the need for everyday resources, said Peter Newland, the director of training at 51 Degrees, a private security company in Kenya.

“Donors outside of Africa want to see sexy, high-tech solutions like drones and ground sensors, not to hear about the need for warm clothing, boots and better food for rangers,” he said. “Large nongovernmental groups spend huge amounts, yet there are rangers calling me for socks.”

The wildlife fund study also found that 82 percent of rangers had faced life-threatening situations, including attacks by poachers and animals. Ms. Paundi was one of more than 1,000 rangers killed on the job over the past 10 years, according to the Thin Green Line Foundation, which supports park rangers and their families. Many receive little or nothing from the government.

Another World Wildlife Fund study, in 10 African countries, found that just 60 percent of rangers had health insurance, 50 percent had life insurance and 40 percent had long-term disability insurance.

“Imagine how demotivating it would be to see a mate killed and then to witness his family removed from their house and his kids taken out of school because they receive no wage as a thank you for his sacrifice after he’s gone,” said Sean Willmore, who founded the Thin Green Line Foundation. “Morale plays a massive role in reducing poaching.”

Governmental corruption makes a ranger’s job even more difficult in many parts of Africa. Poachers have been supported by officials in a number of countries. But rangers would be in trouble even if there were no corruption, Mr. Willmore said.

In the last two years, the foundation has spent $1.2 million on equipment and training for rangers and has supported more than 150 families of those killed in the line of duty, including Ms. Paundi’s. The organization is putting her children through school.

Similarly, For Rangers, a charity co-founded by Mr. Newland that raises money through extreme racing events, has donated $200,000 worth of gear, vehicles, medical supplies and family aid to rangers at 10 parks throughout Africa since April 2014.

Save the Elephant

Listing the two types of elephants as separate endangered species will save them from being poached into extinction.

“There’s a huge amount of recognition for the illegal wildlife trade crisis, but not a huge amount for the people really doing the day-to-day work to stop it,” said Sam Taylor, a co-founder of For Rangers and the head of conservation projects at 51 Degrees.

But small nonprofit groups can support only a fraction of the estimated 20,000 to 25,000 rangers working in Africa.

“Performance is definitely affected by the lack of insurance, combined with the high risk factor and the lack of training and equipment,” said Rohit Singh, the lead author of the World Wildlife Fund studies. “How can we expect rangers to deliver if they do not have these basic things?”

When rangers are well taken care of and receive appropriate training, poaching rates tend to drop, Mr. Singh and Mr. Willmore said.

Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, a wildlife sanctuary in Kenya, for example, was losing unprecedented numbers of rhinoceroses when it overhauled its operations in 2014. To turn things around, the conservancy invested in specialized training, brought in a helicopter, installed a new communications system and strengthened relationships with local communities.

Since then, Lewa has not lost a single rhino.

“There was a time when rhinos were poached here so often that we were becoming scared, but we’ve tried our best and we’ve stopped it,” said Francis Kobia Chokera, 44, a ranger at Lewa. “We had security before, but not like it is now. It’s very, very tight.”

Mr. Chokera’s job is still demanding: He patrols on foot for 12 hours a day, and like 47 percent of the rangers interviewed by the wildlife fund, he sees his family fewer than five days per month. But he has insurance, earns around $3,600 a year — more than two times the average income in Kenya — and receives overtime, free housing and a pension.

“By good luck, I was given the chance to work here,” he said. “I’ve always loved animals.”

Timothy Tear, executive director for the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Africa program, said that success stories like Lewa’s are “where hope is found.” He noted that the conservancy’s considerable investment in security and ranger training — $1 million a year — has been integral to its success.

“If you do the simple math of dollars spent to acres protected, you will find Lewa at the top of the investment-per-acre gradient,” Dr. Tear said.

Other protected areas that have received large investments in ranger training and support — like the Sabi Sand Game Reserve in South Africa — have seen similar gains against poachers. In 2013, the reserve lost 51 rhinos, but only two have been killed this year.

“Our rangers were herders, but now they’re effectively soldiers,” said David Powrie, Sabi Sand’s warden. “They’re at the center of all our operations.”

For now, such cases are the exception, but Mr. Willmore said better and broader training could be a first step toward improving working conditions for rangers across Africa. The Thin Green Line Foundation plans to teach 30 to 50 exceptional rangers the skills needed to be trainers themselves, and then host six events a year at which they would instruct their colleagues.

“At the moment, most training rangers get, if any, is expensive and done by expats, and there’s no follow-up,” Mr. Willmore said. “By training the trainers, we will potentially reach over 15,000 rangers in the next five years and help change the game on the ground.”

Though training would not solve problems like a lack of insurance and equipment, it could save the lives of both animals and rangers. Recently, a ranger who had been taught self-defense was attacked by a poacher with a machete and was able to use a stick to knock down the suspect and arrest him, said Craig Millar, the head of security for Kenya’s Big Life Foundation, a community conservation group.

Ms. Paundi, the ranger in Zambia, had no such training. “Protecting wildlife is good, but my mom didn’t have enough protection herself,” said Ms. Phiri, her daughter. “I believe if my mother had the proper training, equipment and security, she would still be alive today.”

President-elect Trump has announced his pick for head for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – Republican Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt. The twist? Pruitt is currently suing the agency he’ll soon lead. He has helped lead the battle against key climate-change initiatives such as the Clean Power Plan, which 29 state attorneys-general are contesting. Pruitt and other attorneys-general are also suing the agency over a rule regulating methane emissions from oil and gas production, as well as over other rules meant to curb mercury and arsenic emissions, reduce smog, and protect streams and wetlands.

Attorney General Scott Pruitt of Oklahoma speaking at the 2016 Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland.

Gage Skidmore

Pruitt joins Oklahoma GOP senators James Inhofe and Tom Coburn in questioning the need to act on climate change. In an op-ed in The National Review earlier this year, Pruitt wrote that the debate is “far from settled” and called the Clean Power Plan an example of “advancing the climate-change agenda by any means necessary.” In 2014, he sent the EPA a letter claiming that the agency had greatly overestimated the air pollution produced by natural gas drilling in Oklahoma. The New York Times later reported that the letter was actually written by lawyers for Devon Energy, one of the biggest energy companies in the state – and that Pruitt and a dozen other Republican attorneys general had teamed up with energy companies to push back against what they saw as regulatory excesses by Obama.

Oil wells on a rural road around sunset in Northern Oklahoma.

Clinton Steeds

Pruitt’s pro-energy stance and aggressive fights against federal regulations helped him get the nod. “You are going to want to have someone who has had state experience, who really understands the issues and has had to deal with an overreaching EPA as a federal agency,” George “David” Banks, executive vice president of the American Council for Capital Formation, told E&E News in September.

Environmental groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council and Defenders of Wildlife immediately denounced the “absolute wrong choice” of Pruitt to lead the 15,000-employee agency. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., wrote in a press release that “he’s bragged about suing, trashing and manipulating the agency he’s now supposed to lead.” And the American Sustainable Business Councilstated in a press release that “Pruitt’s selection signals a rollback of policies that have stimulated innovation and progress. In addition to clean energy, clean water and chemical regulation are under threat as a result of preferential treatment these regulated industries are expected to receive.”

(CNN) Leonardo DiCaprio met with President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday to discuss climate change — adding to the mixed signals from the President-elect on the environment.

“We presented the President-elect and his advisors with a framework … that details how to unleash a major economic revival across the United States that is centered on investments in sustainable infrastructure,” Terry Tamminen, CEO of the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, said in a statement. “Our conversation focused on how to create millions of secure, American jobs in the construction and operation of commercial and residential clean, renewable energy generation.

DiCaprio’s meeting with Trump only added to the mixed messages coming out of Trump Tower, particularly on the issue of climate change.

On the same day of his meeting with DiCaprio, Trump tapped Oklahoma attorney general Scott Pruitt — a climate change denier — to head the Environmental Protection Agency. Pruitt is an opponent of many of the Obama EPA’s environmental regulations, and sued the agency over its regulations of power plants in his capacity as attorney general.

Coupled with Trump’s own history of climate change skepticism, environmentalists see dim prospects for action that scientists say is necessary to avert the most devastating consequences of climate change. Trump has called climate change a “hoax” but in a recent interview allowed for the possibility that human activity may be contributing to global warming.

Trump held a separate meeting this week with another high-profile environmental activist — former Vice President Al Gore, who has also championed the fight against climate change in his career after politics.

DiCaprio has used his celebrity to champion environmental causes. He emphasized the threat of climate change in his 2016 Academy Awards acceptance speech — “Climate change is real, it is happening right now,” he said — and produced a documentary on the subject, titled “Before the Flood,” which was released this year. According to “The Independent,” DiCaprio gave Ivanka Trump a copy of the documentary at the meeting.

The statement from his foundation added that “climate change is bigger than politics, and the disastrous effects on our planet and our civilization will continue regardless of what party holds majorities in Congress or occupies the White House.”

And according to the foundation, there may be another meeting.

“The President-elect expressed his desire for a follow up meeting in January, and we look forward to continuing the conversation with the incoming administration as we work to stop the dangerous march of climate change, while putting millions of people to work at the same time,” Tamminen said in the statement.

The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment on the DiCaprio meeting.

How drastic might Trump’s climate change policy changes be? A report released in Novemberby the International Energy Agency (IEA) outlines two key scenarios for emissions and global warming in the coming decades.

The first scenario assumes world leaders keep the promises made in Paris last year at the United Nation’s COP21 summit. The agreement between more than 175 countries introduced environmentally friendly policies to slow the increase in emissions and global warming.

The second scenario assumes no real action is taken and agreements are brushed aside, resulting in a 36% surge in carbon dioxide emissions by 2040, nearly three times the increase expected under the first scenario. While that would be a nightmare for environmentalists, it’s unlikely that all Paris signatories would abandon their pledges.

Still, according to a recent United Nations Environment report, the world is still heading for a temperature rise of 2.9 to 3.4 degrees Celsius this century, even with the Paris pledges.

An Australian man caught on camera punching a kangaroo in the face has been criticised for his actions, after it was revealed he is a zookeeper.

Greig ‘Goo’ Tonkins became an internet star after the clip came to light, which shows him rescuing his dog Max from a kangaroo’s headlock by firing a brutal right hook at its snout.

The footage was filmed in Euabalong, New South Wales back in June during a boar-hunting trip for a friend with terminal cancer who has since died.

After the video was shared around the world, animal rights groups condemned Mr Tonkins’ actions.

They’re calling for him to lose his job as an elephant keeper at Western Plains Zoo in New South Wales.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) told Australian Regional Media that Mr Tonkins should not be “made out to be a national hero”, but rather prosecuted.

“Punching a kangaroo in the face is neither brave nor funny,” the group said.

Mr Tonkins also drew derision from the Humane Society International Australia, who said their efforts to rescue circus elephants in India is undermined if “we can’t even look after our own species here”.

“It is very disturbing of someone of this character has a position [at Western Plains Zoo]. They would have no trouble filling it with someone who respects animals,” they said.

The zoo disagrees, however, and says Mr Tonkins’ job is safe.

“Mr Tonkins is an experienced zookeeper and during his six years at Taronga Western Plains Zoo has always followed Taronga’s best practice approach to animal care and welfare,” said a zoo spokesperson.

“We continue to work with Mr Tonkins on his conduct in regards to this incident.”

Matthew Amor, a friend of Mr Tonkins’ who also attended the hunting trip, said their deceased mate “would be looking down from up there [heaven] and laughing” at the media furore.

“It was funny because [Mr Tonkins] is the most placid bloke. We laughed at him for chucking such a s**t punch,” Mr Amor told news.com.au.

“…..Glacier Bay didn’t strongly “feel” The Blob in the first couple summers after its onset (2014-2015). But last year’s El Nino seems to have exacerbated ocean warming, and at least in the main lower trunk of Glacier Bay mid-summer water temperatures have been significantly warmer in 2016.”

“Burning all the world’s coal, oil and gas would melt the entire Antarctic ice-sheet and cause the oceans to rise by over 50m, a transformation unprecedented in human history. The conclusion of a new scientific study shows that, over the course of centuries, land currently inhabited by a billion people would be lost below water.” — The Guardian.